THE STORY OF AN ENTOMOLOGIST 



Sewell the decision, and he was kind enough to say that Millet's 

 judgment was probably sound. 



Millet spent the last years of his life in Washington, where 

 he had loads of warm friends, as he must have had everywhere. 

 He was the simplest and most unpretentious of men, and about 

 the best mixer I have ever known. I remember that in the sum- 

 mer of 1907, I had Geza Horvath, of the Budapest Museum, and 

 A. Severin of Brussels, as my guests during the Washington 

 visit of the Seventh International Zoological Congress. It was 

 in August, and, as my family was at Onteora, we slept at home, 

 but had our meals at the Club. One night at dinner Millet 

 passed us, and I stopped him and introduced him to the distin- 

 guished foreigners. He greeted Horvath in Hungarian, and then, 

 turning to Severin, addressed him in Flammand. The Europeans 

 were delighted, and spoke of the incident whenever I met them 

 in future years. They knew that the name was familiar in art 

 circles, but I am not quite sure whether they thought that they 

 were talking to Jean Francois or to Sir John, as I purposely 

 introduced him in French, pronouncing the name, "Millay." 



Millet's fluency in foreign languages was extraordinary. Apro- 

 pos to this statement, I once told the story I have just related to 

 Charles Francis Adams, and he said that while no one was more 

 fluent in the patter of a number of European languages. Millet's 

 fluency took little account of grammar or form. He went on to 

 say that while he, Adams, was United States Minister to Italy, 

 Millet, who had just finished his work for the old New York 

 Graphic in the Turko-Russian War, called at the Ministry and 

 offered his services as secretary. Adams was greatly taken with 

 him, admired his fluent use of foreign languages, and took him 

 on. Later, at a reception, Adams, talking to the French Ambas- 

 sador to Rome, apologized for his poor French and suggested 

 that his secretary, Mr. Millet, would put his ideas into much 



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